The shock and awe of Westworld has only just begun. With season 1 of the hit sci-fi series behind us and season 2 on the way, there is so much more that’s sure to play out beyond the show’s Western-themed adventure park. We’re ready to head back now, but the upcoming 10 episodes won’t start airing until spring 2018, with an official premiere date still pending.

The second season will continue the often-twisted, always-intriguing story inspired by novelist Michael Crichton’s 1973 film of the same name. Season 2 will return viewers to the complex fantasy sci-fi world that features artificially intelligent robots who, as it turns out, don’t always do their job of letting the human guests fulfill their fantasies.

Read on for everything we know so far about Westworld season 2, and be prepared: Spoilers lie ahead.

New season, new parks

If you thought the wild west park was Westworld’s only fantasy-fueled funhouse, think again. In season 2, we expect to be introduced to as many as three new worlds. In addition to Samurai World, hints of which were teased in the season 1 finale, the series’ showrunners in Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy recently made comments teasing additional worlds. When asked specifically about why Roman World and Medieval World weren’t a part of season 1 at a recent panel, Nolan responded, “We had to save something for season 2.”

In the film, these parks are also owned by Westworld creator Delos and also enable people to live out their fantasies. They should make for interesting new backdrops for the story as it continues to unfold.

The (young) Man in Black is back

We didn’t get confirmation that William (Jimmi Simpson), the young version of the Man in Black, would be back when he appeared at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, but the actor finally made the news official on July 30. Responding to a fan on Twitter, he wrote, “Yessir, William will be black. I mean back.”

While internet forums had long speculated, it took until the season 1 finale for Westworld to reveal that William was indeed the park visitor who became the Man in Black. However, fans were left with plenty of unanswered questions regarding his character’s evolution. With Simpson returning, it looks like we’ll start to get additional pieces of the puzzle. In fact, Simpson dropped hints along those lines during Comic-Con, indicating that Nolan and Joy plan to delve further into the intriguing character’s backstory, as reported by Westworld Watchers.

The bloodshed has already begun

HBO gave us a first look at Westworld season 2 during San Diego Comic-Con in July, teasing — yes, you guessed it — a lot of gore. There is plenty of blood in the preview, from Maeve (Thandi Newton) and Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) finding corpses inside Delos to Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Teddy (James Marsden) gunning down guests on the open plains.

We all-but knew season 2 was going to usher in further brutality, but the preview confirmed the direction we are headed.

A host gets a bigger (and deadlier) role

It’s no surprise the death toll at Westworld is poised to grow, and after the bloody events of the season 1 finale, it sounds like we’ll see at least one lesser-known host get involved in the upcoming violence. That character is Angela, the host who has long greeted the park’s visitors. The actress who portrays her, Talulah Riley, has been promoted to series regular for season 2, according to Entertainment Weekly.

As a source indicated, the “host whose beatific face welcomed guests to Westworld for decades,” will get a darker role in season 2: “Angela will prove to be one of the last faces many guests will ever see.”

That sounds appropriately ominous.

An unsurprising renewal

The official confirmation for Westworld season 2 came in November after just seven episodes had aired, but the news was hardly surprising. Not only had the show been drawing positive reviews from critics, viewership was extremely strong, ultimately topping even the debut season of HBO’s current ratings behemoth, Game of Thrones. The renewal did come with somewhat bad news, though, namely that Westworld fans would have to wait till 2018 for season 2.

Although we’re still in for several months of waiting, it’ll all be worth it if the show’s second season can live up to its debut.

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